


keys

by lipsstainedbloodred



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Ficlet, Kandreil - Freeform, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 14:43:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10969389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lipsstainedbloodred/pseuds/lipsstainedbloodred
Summary: kevin gets the chance once more to prove he's not a coward





	keys

**Author's Note:**

> for the tumblr prompt: “If you’re not scared, then you’re not taking a chance. If you’re not taking a chance, then what the hell are we doing anyway?”
> 
> follow me on tumblr @cigarettesmokeandexyracquets

The apartment key felt cold and unfamiliar in Kevin’s hand. This was, admittedly, a bigger step than Kevin Day wanted to take. It was one thing when he and Andrew and Neil were rooming together at Palmetto State, it’s something completely different now that they’ve all graduated and been signed to three different pro teams. There is no reason for Kevin to still live with them, no reason for Kevin not to have an apartment in San Diego to be closer to his team. 

But Neil had pressed this key into his hand and cupped his fingers around it. He looked Kevin straight in the eye when he said, “It’s okay to be scared.”

Kevin’s voice was rough in his own ear when he replied, “I’m not scared.”

“If you’re not scared, then you’re not taking a chance.” Neil replied. “If you’re not taking a chance, then what the hell are we doing anyway?”

And Neil left Kevin standing outside the door to make his decision. On one hand there was the press, his relationship with Andrew and Neil was not out to the world and living with them would be tricky to try to conceal. On the other hand he had never loved anyone as much as he loved Andrew and Neil, had never had anyone love him so much in return. On one hand, his career. The other, his life. 

Kevin rolled the key in his palm and traced the ridges with his thumb. He thought about the crossed keys inked on Neil’s forearm, the day Andrew threw the key to the Maserati at him and told Kevin not to crash it, the day Andrew and Neil dragged him into their bedroom in Columbia and told him to stay. Between the three of them a key meant home, it meant stability, safety, family. It was trust and hope. It was a future that none of them believed they could have.

Kevin looked up at the apartment door. Andrew and Neil had already moved their things in, Kevin’s suitcases were still in the car. The window was open and he could hear the soft sounds of one of Andrew’s records playing. 

Neil had called Kevin a coward in the past, and he wasn’t wrong. Kevin had a coward’s heart, a liquid spine, feet always pointed in the direction of the quickest way out. It would be easy to call a cab to take him to the airport, easy to find an apartment in San Diego, easy to delete Andrew and Neil’s numbers from his phone and never speak to them again. He could keep them a secret, a college romance, something to be swept under the rug. He could find a girlfriend, get married, focus on his career until he finally got too old and his knees got week. 

He could see himself in twenty years with a wife and a child and a room of trophies in his house. He could see himself at his child’s wedding, looking through the hospital nursery glass, teaching his grandchild to play Exy. He could see himself old and content, but never really happy. Not like he was in the mornings with Andrew pressed to the wall and Neil between them. Not like when Andrew rested his head in Kevin’s lap and let Kevin run his fingers through his hair. Not like when Neil smiled at him after a game, big and bright and so much it made Kevin’s heart swell.

Kevin’s feet, always pointed toward the easiest escape, take him up the the door. He uses the key, now warm to his touch, and unlocks the front door. Inside the apartment Neil and Andrew are curled up on the couch, Andrew with his feet in Neil’s lap. 

“About time, Day,” Andrew says. “I thought you were going to stand outside forever.”

Neil just smiles at him, and Kevin knows he’s made the right choice. Fuck the press. Fuck the world. All he needs are these two men right here. “Get off your lazy asses and help me get my suitcases.” Kevin says and Neil laughs and everything is right in the world.


End file.
